Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

In search of the Martin MB-1: It appears that only one MB-1 was fitted with a 37mm cannon. This MB-1 was designated AS62951, but I have also seen it listed as AS62950. The following photos show two versions of the MB-1 with the right being the 37mm cannon model:
AS62951.png

Photo taken from: https://tvd.im/aviation/1356-martin-mb-1-glenn-martin-bomber.html

So why does the one on the left have such a long barrel on what may will be a 7.62mm machine gun which was a common armament for these planes?
 
I got curious and looked it up. The first successful air-to-air refueling occurred in 1923! I'd have thought at least 20 years later than that.

Early aviators were some brave, or crazy, or both, individuals.
Add to the fact it was GASOLINE! Airplanes also build up a lot of static electricity. You wouldn't have caught me doing that! I wonder how many unsuccessful attempts preceded the first successful operation.
 
Add to the fact it was GASOLINE! Airplanes also build up a lot of static electricity. You wouldn't have caught me doing that! I wonder how many unsuccessful attempts preceded the first successful operation.

....only one unsuccessful attempt....per aircraft, I'd guess. :yikes:

As for the extra long barrel on that 7.62mm - perhaps it was a refueling probe?
 
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Anybody know which airplane was the very first to be powered by a turboprop engine?

Bonus points if you can name the engine...
I see what you did there Pete....:D

Gloster_Trent-Meteor_EE227.jpg


Used the Rolls-Royce Trent.

Bonus points if anyone can tell us what the "Trent" stands for.. ;)
 
My favorite planes (in no particular order) :

P-38 Lightning (so cool)
P-61 Black Widow (fer shure! The Lightning's badass big sister from another mister)
B-2 Bomber (how can you not love something that looks like the Batplane?)
OV-10D Bronco (little badass)
C-5 Galaxy (everybody loves big. Great plane, was told it was a bitch to work on...)
SR71 (alone, unarmed, untouchable. flying on the fringe of space)
DC-3/C-47 (quite possibly a perfect machine)
P-6M Martin Seamaster (never put into production, a Cold-War jet sea plane, outran fighter chase planes during testing)
Burt Rutan's Voyager (not a military plane, but too cool not to be on the list)
V-22 Osprey (whadya mean, straight up?!)

There are so many, it's hard to play favorites. I'm sure I missed a bunch that should've made the list...






I grew up in a small town a few miles from Rex Barber. We always thought he was one of the best P38 pilots ever. He was a guy that never gloated about his accomplishments. (class)

This is a quick read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_T._Barber
 
I see what you did there Pete....:D

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Used the Rolls-Royce Trent.

Bonus points if anyone can tell us what the "Trent" stands for.. ;)

Perfecto Jim - and those 616 Sqn. Meteors flew from your hometown RAF station of Manston. ;)

Trent....I'm trying to think of an acronym that means: "the reduction gearbox oil leaked all over the place and the we couldn't control the props"....

Rudi - the Trent Meteor was a one-off experimental airplane.
 
Trent....I'm trying to think of an acronym that means: "the reduction gearbox oil leaked all over the place and the we couldn't control the props"....
Rolls Royce named their aircraft piston engines after birds of prey. Eagle, Kestrel... and of course, the much loved Merlin.
Jet engines are named for rivers in England and Scotland. The Spey, Tay, Avon... and of course the Trent. The reason they chose rivers was to reflect the continuous flow nature of the jet engine.
A few jet engines were named for snakes. The Adder and Viper for instance. These were originally built and named by Armstrong Siddley. When RR acquired AS, they kept the names.
Now you know.... ;)
 
Rolls Royce named their aircraft piston engines after birds of prey. Eagle, Kestrel... and of course, the much loved Merlin.
Jet engines are named for rivers in England and Scotland. The Spey, Tay, Avon... and of course the Trent. The reason they chose rivers was to reflect the continuous flow nature of the jet engine.
A few jet engines were named for snakes. The Adder and Viper for instance. These were originally built and named by Armstrong Siddley. When RR acquired AS, they kept the names.
Now you know.... ;)

Hi Jim,
old Gods at Bristol,
Hercules and Centaurus twin bank radials, Proteus prop-jet, Orpheus and Olympus pure jets
 
Rolls Royce named their aircraft piston engines after birds of prey. Eagle, Kestrel... and of course, the much loved Merlin.
Jet engines are named for rivers in England and Scotland. The Spey, Tay, Avon... and of course the Trent. The reason they chose rivers was to reflect the continuous flow nature of the jet engine.
A few jet engines were named for snakes. The Adder and Viper for instance. These were originally built and named by Armstrong Siddley. When RR acquired AS, they kept the names.
Now you know.... ;)

ZACKLEY!!
...and Bristol named their engines for Greek mythology: Perseus, Hercules, and of course, the mighty Olympus (the 593 version of which powered the sublime Concorde), and Napier named theirs after weapons (Rapier, Broad Arrow, Sabre...).

Beat me to it Frederick!

Clever beggars those Brits...
 
Related to the B-25, in my neighborhood was a man that we called "Doc". He flew the B-25's in the 9th AF around the Mediterranean theater during WWII. He went to Medical school on the GI Bill. During the Korean war, he was a Doctor.
 
Mosquito: I went to a church fair about 10 years back. There was a guy in his 80s selling stuff. We started talking and it turned out he was a Mosquito air frame engineer based in Scotland during WWII. He worked on the then top secret program of fitting bouncing bombs to Mosquitos for some mission that never eventuated.
 
When I was a mail carrier, I worked in a retirement community. This was approximately 50 years after the end of WW2 and at the time the community was filled with war vets. I got to meet such a variety of guys that were involved in actions all over Europe and Asia. A P-38 Pilot, an A-6 Pilot, a guy that flew an unarmed little prop plane in Europe doing reconnaissance missions over enemy territory. He told me of one harrowing event when he had to fly through valleys and tree tops to evade a Messerschmidt, he said he still had nightmares from it. I met no less than three guys who were at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and an Italian man who was in their Navy, and a German man who was a tank crewman who’s tank was blown up deep inside Russia, he had severe shrapnel wounds and struggled to get back home, he nearly starved to death. No matter how busy I was with work, I always stopped to listen to these guys stories, I knew how short their time was and how important their history was. I wanted to hear it all. I met many more , too many to list here.
But my favorite story was this guy who was a sailor in the Pacific, the first ship he was stationed on was sunk by torpedoes, he was rescued and placed on another ship, it too was sunk by torpedoes! He was one of just a handful of men who survived. Then he was stationed on the USS Missouri until the end of the war, he said he was standing at an anti aircraft gun above the deck when Japan came aboard to sign the surrender, he said he looked right down on the whole thing! He was quite a guy.
342B1131-5444-4299-B407-A17A425AC82D.jpeg
08E7482F-5DF5-4E67-87CE-4702BA95DA15.jpeg
 
When I was a mail carrier, I worked in a retirement community. This was approximately 50 years after the end of WW2 and at the time the community was filled with war vets. I got to meet such a variety of guys that were involved in actions all over Europe and Asia. A P-38 Pilot, an A-6 Pilot, a guy that flew an unarmed little prop plane in Europe doing reconnaissance missions over enemy territory. He told me of one harrowing event when he had to fly through valleys and tree tops to evade a Messerschmidt, he said he still had nightmares from it. I met no less than three guys who were at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and an Italian man who was in their Navy, and a German man who was a tank crewman who’s tank was blown up deep inside Russia, he had severe shrapnel wounds and struggled to get back home, he nearly starved to death. No matter how busy I was with work, I always stopped to listen to these guys stories, I knew how short their time was and how important their history was. I wanted to hear it all. I met many more , too many to list here.
But my favorite story was this guy who was a sailor in the Pacific, the first ship he was stationed on was sunk by torpedoes, he was rescued and placed on another ship, it too was sunk by torpedoes! He was one of just a handful of men who survived. Then he was stationed on the USS Missouri until the end of the war, he said he was standing at an anti aircraft gun above the deck when Japan came aboard to sign the surrender, he said he looked right down on the whole thing! He was quite a guy.
View attachment 173750 View attachment 173751

Amazing - no wonder they called those guys “the greatest generation”.
 
Mosquito: I went to a church fair about 10 years back. There was a guy in his 80s selling stuff. We started talking and it turned out he was a Mosquito air frame engineer based in Scotland during WWII. He worked on the then top secret program of fitting bouncing bombs to Mosquitos for some mission that never eventuated.

Possibly for one of the German ships holed up in a fiord.
 
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